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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 8.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Paz's opinion about Western respect for life?
(a) It illustrates man's limitations.
(b) It is either hypocritical or incomplete.
(c) It is truthful and realistic.
(d) It is not convincing.

2. According to Paz, what is death in modern thought?
(a) The putting to rest of all sorrow.
(b) The end of all unworthy men.
(c) The avoidable end to a wasted life.
(d) The predictable end to a natural progression.

3. How does solitude assume a purifying, almost purgative, quality for the Mexican?
(a) It wipes away his anger toward others.
(b) It serves to mitigate his guilt (a Catholicism concept).
(c) It concentrates the Mexican's attention on the Divine rather than on the human.
(d) It is proof of future communion with others.

4. What did Paz find in the actions and faces of North Americans?
(a) A faith in man's intrinsic goodness and its effects on their culture.
(b) An unrealistic optimism about the future.
(c) A fear about the survival of their society.
(d) A faith in their society and confidence in its survival.

5. Why are people sad if a person dies badly (Chapter Three)?
(a) There is no honor in an untoward death.
(b) The life is less important than the death.
(c) The death should reflect the life.
(d) There will be no rest for his soul.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Paz's argument, how have tradition and religion always been presented to the Mexicans?

2. What has history demonstrated through certain Contra authors such as Isaac Deutscher?

3. According to Paz, what must be the first step toward reform?

4. Why does the modern novelist rarely choose the worker as his protagonist?

5. What metaphor does Paz use to describe Mexico taking control from Spain?

(see the answer key)

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